Chandigarh, June 14
The BJP today announced its candidates for the coming Assembly elections in Punjab.
All sitting MLAs of the party have been renominated as candidates for the poll. They have been told to start preparations in their respective constituencies. The party has also told its five candidates who had lost the last Assembly elections to be ready to re-contest the poll from the constituencies they had tried their luck last time. No candidate will be allowed to change his constituency. Though the party will try to get a bigger share of seats from its coalition partner, the SAD, at the moment it has thought it prudent to announce the candidates for the seats contested by it last time.
There is a possibility of the party changing one or two candidates but a decision on this will be taken when the date for holding the elections is announced by the Election Commission of India. Mr Gardara Singh, who won on the BJP ticket from Ferozepore last time, is not in a position to contest the elections on health grounds. He has been almost bed-ridden for the past several months. He is likely to be replaced but no decision has been taken in this connection so far.
The BJP had put up its candidates in 23 constituencies in the state. While 18 of them were elected, five lost the elections. Mr Avinash Jaiswal, general secretary of the party, said the party candidates were defeated in the Dasuya, Garhshankar, Jalandhar (North), Ludhiana (East) and Amritsar (West) constituencies. The party has resolved to do extra work in these constituencies to give a better performance.
The BJP also announced that its central election office would be at Jalandhar. As Jalandhar is a central place, it is suitable for effective coordination among BJP leaders and activists in the state.
The BJP’s announcement of candidates will certainly cause a flutter among the Opposition parties, especially the Congress. As the BJP is part of the ruling coalition in the state, its step will make these parties infer that the elections are not far off. Already the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, Capt Amarinder Singh, has asked his party men to be prepared for the elections as he had information that these were expected to be held within the next three months because of various reasons.
A high-level meeting of the Congress is being held here tomorrow and the party may reframe its election strategy in view of the announcement made by the BJP.
However, informed sources in
the Shiromani Akali Dal( SAD) headed by the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, said that the elections would not be held before the last week of January next year. “There is no question of holding the poll this year”, said a senior leader of the party associated with its decision making process.
“A lot remains to be done by the party in the state to swing the election balance in its favour. It will take at least six months to do so. Before fully satisfying itself that a proper atmosphere has been created by the party in its favour, it will not announce the elections”, the SAD leader added.
The BJP has appointed its observers in all 23 constituencies. By July 31, political conferences would be held in these constituencies, said Mr Jaiswal. A training camp for Yuva Morcha activists would be held in Ludhiana from June 27 to 29 to prepare them for election campaign duties. A meeting of office-bearers and activists from the Moga, Fazilka and Abohar areas would be held on July 1. It would be followed by a meeting of the state office-bearers and senior leaders of the party at Bathinda on July 5. Mr Jana Krishnamurthi, President of the BJP, would address the Bathinda meeting. The party had made a request to the Chief Minister to set up coordination committees of SAD-BJP workers at the block level.
Meanwhile, the BJP has put all its Ministers on duty at the party office here for the redress of the grievances of party workers. The Ministers will sit in the office by turn on all working days in the week. This step seems to have been taken following a large number of complaints that party Ministers do not care to solve the problems of workers.
